VTT-led European Project Aims for a Healthier Environment

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is coordinating a European project called ESTABLISH, which aims to provide a healthier and safer environment and improve the quality of life for people across Europe.

This project will include a pilot experiment in Finland, which will be carried out in schools. A call is now out for Finnish schools to participate in the experiment, which will begin next autumn and focus on improving indoor air quality.

The project involves developing innovative personalised applications and services for users by combining personal physiological measurements and sensor data on the quality of indoor and outdoor air. The aim is to gain information on the effect of indoor air quality on the well-being of students and teachers as well as reliable indoor air quality measuring techniques.

The pilot experiment will involve collecting information about indoor air quality using different kinds of classroom-based sensors.

Teachers will be given wearable devices for collecting personal physiological data. They will also have access to a mobile application that they can use to give feedback on how they perceive indoor air quality and their own well-being. During the second stage of the experiment, the mobile application will be used to give teachers information relating to their working environment and their own well-being.

The pilot experiment will be carried out in the autumn of 2018, and it will run for approximately four months.

The number of sensors in our living environment is expected to increase considerably in the next few years. This presents the immense potential to develop new personalised data-based applications and services.

ESTABLISH (Environmental Sensing To Act for a Better Quality of Life: Smart Health) is a Europe-wide project consisting of 20 businesses from seven countries. The primary objective of the project is to improve people’s well-being by monitoring and improving indoor air quality. Other pilot experiments associated with this project focus on improving indoor air quality with the help of smart heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems.